Memorial Day Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

A race marshal came over, checked our numbers and assigned us a lane. At 9:11ish, we got into our lanes. My heart was already beater faster, and I started my watch ten seconds prior to the race. The buzzer went off and we pushed off starting the 2nd wave. My first lap seemed ok, but by the 3rd I was struggling to breath. I was trying to do bilateral breathing and my body was screaming for more air. I know I swam some on my side, skater position, trying to recover some air. I also have no problem doing a breast stroke to recover. Around the 11 minute mark, they moved me to the flow over lane so the next wave could use my lane. This totally broke my stride. It did give me a short rest, and my last 2 laps I seemed to find my pace, things started to click, and my freestyle took form. The lap counter on my lane told me my time….all I heard was just over 12 minutes. There was a crowd who cheered as I climbed out of the pool…..thanks Bill. Hearing the crowd really pumped me up. The swim was out of the way, and now on to more comfortable portions of the race. Sadly my time was one of the slowest with 90% of the pack in front of me.

Transition 1 seems to be my strong suit. I ran up to my bike station, sat on my bucket, put on my cycle shoes (no socks), sun glasses, helmet, fixed my hair tie, unracked my bike, and ran to the start. I can’t do a running mount of my bike but my goal was to get out of transition as fast as I could. My time was 1 minute 7 seconds…slightly faster than my last race. My transition time was faster than roughly 70 of the other racers.

Out on the bike felt good. I had been spending more and more time riding with groups to help me get better on the hills. Right out of the parking lot was a small climb. Another cyclist must have left with me and she slowly put distance between us. There was some veterans on the race course warming up their legs who cheered us on as they passed us. All I can say, those skinny boys are fast on hills. I stayed focused on what my friend Rudy suggested…..stick to my strengths, and don’t kill myself on the hills. Several of the hills were brutal to climb. I could see others in front of me as I crested hill after hill. On a few of the steeper climbs, I could see a few walking their bikes up the hills. I used my granny gear, tried to keep an cadence I can maintain, stayed seated, and grinded my way up the hills. A few times, I pushed hard just as I crested the hill top, knowing the resistance would drop and I’d get a short chance to flush lactate before changing rings and sprinting down the hills. I took advantage of the down hills, not taking a recovery until I got my bike moving faster and the resistance went away. I huddled into an aero position, trying to find the right balance of brake and lean for the turns. Roughly 3 miles into the ride, I started to overcome the cyclist in front of me. The first one I overtook on a rolling hill right after a left turn. I hit the hill hard knowing it was short and I could sprint up it. It’s seldom do I pass people on a hill so this gave me a little boost of confidence. The next person I passed was on the decent of the rolling hill. I was trying to get my speed up to have momentum for the next climb. The third I passed was on a straight flat section of road. The last one I passed was harder. We were on a fast decent and starting to bank into a turn to the left. I had lots of momentum and didn’t want to brake. I took the inside lane, nearly riding the yellow. I turned my head and shoulder to look into the turn, and I could see she was slowing. I made it past her on the downhill turn and as the road straightened out, I pedaled to accelerate out of the turn….just like on my motorcycle. Towards the end of the ride, I was all alone, trying to keep my bike over 20 mph when a white mini van pulled out in front of me. He pulled out way ahead of me, but the van slowed down and I was gaining on it. I started to slow down wondering if the van was going to stop. The van must have wanted to watch me and then took off. Traffic and the sharp turns made this challenging for a new triathlete. The home stretch was a climb up the hill to the school. On my climb, I saw lots of people in my wave running down the hill. I figured I was maybe 4 minutes behind them. The climb was rough as my legs felt like jelly. As the road flattened out for the packing lot and transition, I drank more on my bike, and pushed for the line. At the cones, I stopped and hopped of my bike. I really need to practice moving dismounts. I completed the 11 mile bike, (My bike computer had 11.33) in 48 minutes, 45 seconds. My average speed was just under 14 mph. This was one of my slower paces. My group rides have been closer to 15 to 16. For the bike I came in 87th of the 99 who finished.

T2 had my running to my rack. I remember being tired and lifting my bike up over the curb. I must not have lifted her enough because I felt one of her tired hit the curb. I grunted and moved on to the rack. Up she went to hang by the seat, and then I sat down on my bucket. Shoes went off with my problem, but the socks and running shoes slowed me down. I place my socks unrolled from my feet, so it’s easier to put them on. It felt like they and my shoes didn’t want to come on. I remember sitting there thinking I looked like I was moving in slow motion. Once shoes were on, I dropped off my helmet, picked up Gatorade on my towel, drank as much as I could, and then picked up my hat. I started to jog to the exit when I thought, “Did I get my cliff gel” I stopped for a second, checked my hat and found it. I then took off, jogging while I put the cliff in my pocket, my hat on my head, and pulled my pony tail through the hole in my hat. I was 79th of 99 in T2. I figured I lost time with socks, not taking my shoes off while moving on the bike, and drinking. My time was 1 minute 41 seconds.

Loose the socks

I left transition for a run down the massive hill I just climbed on the bike. I could hear the taps of someone running behind me. I tried to pick up time on the hill but it was hard on the legs to run down. Here I got passed, the guy ran with me for part of the hill, cheered me on, said keep up the good work and I lost him on the flat. Alone on the run race course, I tried to use my heart rate to gauge my pace. The heat and humidity was horrible. I tried to run where I could be in the shade. The run was mostly flat here as it was through downtown New Brighton. The volunteers were helpful at intersections. A bunch of the local football players were volunteering and they shouted cheers as I ran past them. I even got cheered out by a few Asian men standing in front of their restaurant. The best was a catcall from some guys who drove past me in a pickup. I came upon a water station and stopped to drink. One cup I poured on my head, I drank another, and poured yet another down my top. I asked what mile marker it was and the volunteers didn’t know. Off I went to keep going. My heart was pumping around 164, 91% of compacity, a rate I know I could maintain on a short run like this. I came upon the 2nd water station at 1 hour, 27 minutes. This frustrated me because I had hopped to finish at 1 hour 30 minutes, and I estimated I had 1 more mile to go….roughly 10 more minutes at my best pace. Two cups of water in me, one poured on my head under my hat, and one down my chest. The cold water felt amazing on my skin which was burning with the sun and exertion. I took off once more, trying to keep a pace I was guessing was just under 6 mph. It was at the base of the hill when I got caught by a few racers. We started the hill climb together, but they pulled away as my pace dropped on the hill. The climb climb was a mix of a jog and a walk around the middle, but the last 20% I jogged. As I crested the hill, I checked my heart rate and I was at 172, 96%. I had hopped for a lower rate, more energy left for a final sprint through the parking lot flats to the finish. I hated that I was going to jog into the finish….but as I saw more people….and the glimpse of the school, something inside me said push. “I got this” I remember muttering to myself. I slowly felt my pace pick up, I could feel my body trying to get into a sprint position, leaning forward, feet contacting the pavement more on my toes. I finished just under a sprint but faster than my jog. I was handed a bottle of water by a volunteer, as Cynthia and Jill of PTC took pictures of my finish. My run time was 34 minutes, 21 seconds for the 5k placing me 87th of the 99 finishers. My pace was 11:05, roughly 50 seconds slower than my last 5k race the week before. Ironically my time was around 10%, which I remember my swim coach saying its good if my run is within 10% of my normal just run time.

My total time was 1 hour, 38 minutes, 10 seconds. It was a full 8 minutes longer than I expected. The goal I set for myself seemed reasonable of 1 hour 30 minutes. The heat and humidity along with the long hill climbs seemed to slow me down. I ended in the middle of the pack of women in my age group. I do truly wish I knew how I compared to other “Athena” women. It’s hard to judge my progress when my race results are not comparable to women in my weight category. I was 18 minutes slower then the first place woman, and 20 minutes faster than the last spot.

I learned some more lessons and will change my training to address my weaknesses which seem to be pretty globally tied to my endurance. The easiest thing I need to change is to wear my chip on my left ankle and not my right. (It might get caught on the bike chain) I also need to explore more with the tire pressure on my rear tire, and check it again before the race and not the night before. I am now 8 weeks away from the big race that was my goal. I am planning one more race between now and then. Here are some of the things I am going to try and accomplish over the next 8 weeks:

1) Spend more time doing hill work. I have a few hills in my neighbor hood and a steep one near my house on a trail. Both would be good for running on. I will keep attending the WPW/Trek rides to improve on hills and overall speed. Hill repeats that Kam taught me needs to be done more than once a week.
2) Swim Endurance with longer swims. I need to spend more time working on counting my strokes in a 600 yard swim. I have started to explore backup breathing when bilateral just doesn’t produce enough oxygen for my body. I tried a faster stroke to see what I could do to recover and I found if I move from bilateral to breathing every other stroke, I can do ok.
3) Swim Drills repeated. I need to make sure I go back and revisit my drills that help my form. Specially EarHop, Tripwire, and Reaching as I stroke.
4) Loose more weight. I am going to try and loose 10 more pounds between now and July 28th. This is going to be a challenge since my body is loosing and gaining the same 4 pounds. Hopefully more rides and running will help burn it off and keep it off.
5) Run, run, run. I need to get back to adding distance to my runs. I need to make sure I am doing one long run where I add miles once a week. I also plan to do my shorter runs with no socks so I can remove than from my T2 time.
6) Gear review. I plan to review my gear for things I can change. I have tried out a tribike which felt really comfortable and 2 pounds lighter than my road bike. I am now seriously considering the Garmin 910 as well. I also plan to look into a change in cycling shoes.